I administered a quiz today that consisted of 25 matching terms with definitions. As I collected them I noted that some students left blank spaces. I would not collect the quiz until they filled them in. “But,” one of them said, “I don’t know the answer.” To which I responded, “If you leave it blank you cannot get it right. If you try, even if it is a guess, you have a chance. Remote as it is, it is still a chance.”
During the sixteen hundreds Blaise Pascal, a French philosopher, put forth a proposition that has become known as Pascal’s Wager. He wrote if we live as if God existed and He does not, we have lost nothing. But if we live as if He did not exist and He does, then we have lost everything. Therefore, any rational person should live as if God is.
One might be tempted to think this is a very flimsy motive for believing in God. And they are right. However, God is very crafty. He will take us on the slightest of opportunity for He knows that once He has us He can transform us into a more lofty mind-frame. God is in the business of saving people and He will do so with the flimsiest of motive on our part. This is because He doesn’t look at what we are but He looks at what He knows we will become. And we will be spectacular. So take a chance. If we gain, we gain everything. If we lose, we still have gained. The Christian life is the best life there is. Even if that’s all there is. All we lost was a lot of heartache and pain, because, that’s all this world ever has to offer.
Written by Roger Bothwell on February 11, 2014
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org